Remnant of an Old World
by Lone Commentor
Summary: Before Remnant there was Earth, and during the year 2038 the nations of Earth went to war, inevitably destroying the world as they knew it. But one piece of it remained hidden away underground. How will the people of Remnant react to a world they never knew existed?
1. Chapter 1

In the year 2038, the world finally went to war. After decades of disagreements and rising tension, the figurative dam had finally broken, and that dam had been holding back a tidal wave. Unleashing Nuclear warheads, a weapon that many had sworn never to use, upon an innocent world. Many nations died in mere moments; others held on to every last breath, desperate to preserve a semblance of who they once were.

America, once a superpower in the world, had been reduced to an atomic wasteland, with most of its people dead or dying, and it's government collapsed. But before the bombs fell, the president fearing the worst ordered the construction of an underground bunker below Area 51 that would hold the collective history of Humanity. Copies of documents, papers, and volumes were made and stored in vast databases. Thousands of the best and brightest staffed the bunker, making sure that even if thousands of years passed, the world would still live on in some way.

Defending the bunker was a group of the best soldiers enlisted, a group answering directly to the president, Special Operations Group Alpha, SOG-A, the Minutemen. Nicknamed after the minutemen of Lexington and Concord, they were a group ready to retaliate against any force in the world at the drop of a hat. A group of cybernetically and genetically enhanced soldiers, every single member was a celebrity in their own right.

When the word was given, the men and women residing in the bunker entered stasis pods that would allow them to wait out the nuclear apocalypse and attempt to either begin rebuilding or assist any new societies that would rise from the ashes of the Old World, but they never emerged. Their pods never opened, keeping them trapped, suspended in time.

Years passed, and eventually, survivors began to emerge from the ruined remnants of the world. Earth was forgotten, turning into a mere relic of its former glory. Damaged and irradiated, those that survived struggled to live. Humanity had devolved back into tribal societies, warring against one another for the limited resources remaining on the planet. Until one day, two brothers descended from the stars.

The elder brother, the God of Light, reshaped the world and healing it of its cancer, but it was no utopia. The younger brother, the God of Darkness, had his creations, the soulless Creatures of Grimm. Serving as his instruments of destruction, the Grimm devoured human settlements by the hundreds. And when Humanity began to be overwhelmed, the Brothers came together and granted them powers.

The Brother of Light gifted them the ability to use their souls as a method to empower them. Called Aura, it was the manifestation of the wielder's soul, used to shield and enhance the user. Aura trained individuals would go on to unlock unique abilities known as semblances, a manifestation of one's innate power given form. Not to be outdone, the Brother of Darkness granted humanity the ability to use powerful magic. Soon humanity began to create expansive civilizations once more and push back against the Grimm.

Humanity could never outrun their greed. Eager for dominance over the celestial beings, Humanity turned on the two Brothers, desiring to take their power for their own. The Brothers disappointed to see their works turn against them abandoned the planet, but not before the God of Darkness revoked his gift of magic and shattered the moon. Humanity was left broken, with many dead and all the great civilizations brought to ruin, their history lost, but Mankind is nothing if not tenacious. Once again, they pulled themselves from the rubble and formed new settlements. Soon, however, they found that they were not alone.

Faunus, a race of people resembling humans but decorated with a differing variety of animalistic traits, soon appeared alongside humanity. And as the forgotten history of the Old World would've predicted, the two races came into conflict with one another. People became disturbed by the human-like appearance the Faunus had, combined with animal ears, tails, or claws often drove Faunus from their settlements and hunted them down. Some, however, learned to coexist with the Faunus. Those that resided in the oases of Sanus banded together with the Faunus to fight back against the Grimm, while those isolated in the frigid mountains of Solitas never found the need to accept the Faunus.

Four kingdoms now stood on Remnant. Vale settled in the lush forests of Eastern Sanus, while Vacuo appeared among the sands of Western Sanus. To the North on the continent of Solitas, the kingdom of Mantle sought refuge in the towering mountains, and to the East, Mistral dominated the continent of Anima. Each of these kingdoms developed their own unique cultures, which inevitably led to conflicting beliefs.

The creatures of Grimm remained the ever-present threat to the people of Remnant, drawn to feelings of negativity, and when it came to fending off the Grimm, some kingdoms adopted unconventional methods. Mantle, after experiencing brutal Grimm attacks resorted to suppressing its people's very emotions, by banning all forms of art and self-expression. Mistral, which was an ally of Mantle, soon adopted this belief of suppression, albeit to a lesser extent. This belief came into conflict with the views of the Kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo.

In an attempt to ease tensions with the two nations, the Kingdom of Vale constructed a joint settlement with the Kingdom of Mistral. The road to Hell, however, is paved with good intentions. The clash of cultures soon exploded into rioting between the two groups of settlers, marking the beginning of the first battle of the Great War. Vacuo, fearing that if Vale fell that nothing would stop Mantle and Mistral from conquering them, soon allied themselves with Vale.

The Great War lasted for a long decade; Sparing no Kingdom from the brutality. Grimm attacks skyrocketed, and battles would be paused to deal with sudden hordes of Grimm. Eventually, however, Vale and Vacuo stood victorious, and rather than punish Mantle and Mistral with harsh reparations, the kingdoms gathered on the island of Vytal. There they signed the Vytal treaty, where the future of the kingdoms was planned — replacing the monarchies with governing councils, granting Faunus equal rights, and abolishing slavery. Possibly the most important addition was the formation of the Huntsman Academies. Institutions dedicated to training warriors whose task was to defend the kingdoms from the Grimm threat.

But soon Earth would meet Remnant, shaking the very foundations of Remnants history.

* * *

"Hello, I'm Lisa Lavender reporting to you live from deep in the Emerald Forest at what could quite possibly be one of the most important excavations in the history of Remnant. With me today is the famed archaeologist, historian, and professor of Beacon Academy, Professor Bartholomew Oobleck." The news reporter gestured to the tall and lanky individual standing beside her. With messy green hair and a disheveled looking appearance, most would have confused the doctor for an addict of some kind, which he was if the frequency with which he sipped at the coffee in his hands was any indication.

Adjusting his glasses, Oobleck swiftly corrected the reporter, "Doctor, I earned my Ph.D. for a reason."

"Of course Dr. Oobleck, now what can you tell us about the excavation. What do you expect to find?"

Oobleck responded so quickly most would have struggled to catch anything he said. "Well, Miss Lavender, I can tell you that we aren't quite one hundred percent sure what is down there. My colleagues and I have looked through hundreds of documents and ancient texts, but not once was there a mention of underground structures such as this one."

Lisa gained a confused look, "Then how do you know if this isn't just some cave system?"

Oobleck looked overjoyed at her question, "Excellent question Miss Lavender! First, it must be known that it was discovered by the SDC while looking for underground dust stores. Upon discovery, they initially believed it to be a cave system. On closer inspection, however, they had realized that the 'cave system' was too uniform to be naturally occurring. Thankfully they contacted an associate of mine who recommended me, and I immediately got to work on finding out any information I could on underground structures."

Oobleck paused to make sure the reporter caught everything he said, "And surprisingly I could find no such information, ancient or modern, I believe it may actually predate any archaeological site found to date!"

Lisa's eyes widened, "you think this might be the oldest human structure on Remnant!"

Oobleck readjusted his glasses; he was practically shaking in excitement at the academic opportunities the dig could provide. "Or Faunus Miss Lavender, but yes, I do have some theories on what the structure will be, and that is most certainly one of them. And I would be more than happy to discuss them with you, but I must go and check how the drilling is coming along."

Lisa gave a disappointed sigh before nodding and smiling, "Of course, Dr. Oobleck, and thank you for taking time out of what I'm sure is a hectic schedule." Turning back towards the cameraman ready to sign off when suddenly, a chorus of shouts came from the direction excavation site. Suddenly Lisa found herself surrounded by a cloud of dust as Oobleck sprinted in the direction of the bellows. Coughing and waving the dirt away from her face, she looked towards the camera to wrap up her report.

"Once again, Lisa Lavender reporting from the Emerald Forest excavation site signing off, and hopefully returning with another report shortly."

Unknown to the people above, they were about to awaken a remnant of a world far older than they know.

* * *

** Author's Notes:**

**Planned on this first chapter being longer, but I felt like it had ended at a solid point. I plan on making the continuing chapters at least twice as long. I'm pretty new to writing, so please let me know if something doesn't make sense or if there is something I can improve on.**

**Update: Oct 7, 2019**

**Sorry that this isn't a brand new chapter! I just recently graduated from Army BCT and have moved onto my next phase of training in AIT. I had spent some time thinking about the direction I want to take the story, and hopefully, I'll have enough time to continue writing when classes startup.**


	2. Chapter 2

Before Warrant Officer Samuel "Teach" Reed had entered his Stasis unit, he had several predictions of how things would turn out when he woke up; if he woke up. The most probable outcome he believed was that he would die, be it from enemy forces storming the underground bunker while he and his fellow Americans slept or that the pods would malfunction, killing him. But no matter what scenario Teach thought of, he knew that the outcome was something he would have no control over.

In the event, Teach did not meet his untimely end; he believed that he would awaken to the bunker in a state of chaos with alarms blaring with workers and soldiers rushing about. But to Teach's welcomed surprise, he awoke to the grinning face of one of the civilian engineers working in the bunker.

Teach stepped out of the pod, rubbing his shaved head; he could already feel a headache begin to creep in. Standing tall, Teach towered over the engineer, "Welcome back to the waking world, sir! It turns out that we were out for a bit longer than planned".

Teach looked down the row of pods, seeing more engineers opening pods and briefing troops, before looking back down at his engineer. "How much longer, and whats the current situation?"

The engineer looked down at the clipboard in his hands, scratching the back of his head before sighing, "Sir, I don't rightly believe it myself, but I've double, triple, and quadrupled checked it but all the reports state that we've been out for several thousand years."

Teach felt a disbelieving laugh escape from his lips. During the initial briefing for this assignment, he had been dubious to its nature. The idea of being frozen in time for decades or even a century had seemed too impossible for him to imagine it being successful, but thousands of years? It had to be a joke that all the engineers had planned, "Your fucking with me, right? I mean, I could understand us going over by decades maybe even a century, but how the hell did we get put under for thousands of years?"

The engineer shrugged his shoulders before giving an answer. "I got no idea, sir, that's outside my paygrade. Don't worry though, luckily nothing went wrong, and I can assure you that the higher command has been discussing the situation since they were brought out of stasis." Flipping through some papers on his clipboard, the engineer clicked his tongue before continuing. "Speaking of the higher-ups, they've requested that all Officers and their XOs meet in the auditorium for a briefing on the next course of action." With that said and done, Teach watched the engineer moved down the line to the next pod.

With a clear idea of what to do next, Teach made his way through the labyrinth of stasis pods. Freshly woken soldiers made way for him as he passed by, greeting him with a 'Sir' or 'Chief.' Teach would, in turn, respond with a respectful nod or smile to them, many of whom he had deployed before he had joined the Minutemen. As he reached the door to exit the stasis chamber when he felt an arm casually lay across his shoulders.

"I see that the techs finally decided to wake your old ass up."

Teach thrust his elbow back, smirking as he heard a grunt and felt the arm pull away from him. "Still young enough that I can kick your ass, sir!" Turning around, he could see his younger commander, Cpt. Benjamin Wilkes, holding his stomach in faux pain before standing up and smiling.

"You took your sweet time getting here, Teach! I've been waiting for a good half an hour." Waving his hand in dismissal, Wilkes continued, "But forget about that; we should hurry before we're late for the brief."

Teach fell into step on Wilkes' left as they left the chamber and entered into one of the many corridors inside the bunker. "Have you heard anything newsworthy since you got woken up."

Wilkes shook his head as they squeezed past a group of technicians, "Only that we were out a lot longer than we planned to be. Besides that, everything seems to have turned out better than expected." Wilkes turned to Teach with a cynical look, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Teach nodded, "Murphy's Law. I guarantee you that something is going to go wrong."

Wilkes closed his eyes in thought as they reached the door to the auditorium. Out front was a couple of MPs who quickly checked their IDs before letting them through. Inside Teach could see the various Officers seated in front of the stage. On top of the stage, Teach could see a couple of Analysts waiting to give their brief.

Before they could continue into the auditorium to take their seats, they were stopped by a harsh voice behind them. Recognizing the voice, Teach and Wilkes turned around and were greeted by the sight of the man commanding the remnants of the American Army and its people entering just behind them. General Raymond "Apollo" Tolbert. Behind the General's aging body, Teach could still see the strength that earned him a nickname after the fictional boxer Apollo Creed. He was one of the few non-enhanced soldiers that were tall enough to look one of the famed super soldiers in the eye without craning his neck.

"How ironic that the famed Minutemen are the last to arrive."

Teach smiled. "Goodmorning sir! Apologies for arriving late, but the techies were a little slow to get the ball rolling."

General Tobert laughed as he waved aside the apology, "Ha, I'm just messing with you, boys. I know how slow they can be, can't move with any motivation. Now, let us hurry on inside so that we can get this damn briefing out of the way."

Teach and Wilkes followed behind the General as they entered the auditorium, leaving the General as a Marine Colonel grabbed the Tolberts attention. As the lowest ranking officers in the room, they took a pair of seats in the back, preferring to avoid the Full Birds and Stars. One of the analysts, a Master Sergeant, stepped forward, seeing that everyone was finally in the room. Turning to address General Tolbert, he began, "Greetings General, I'm here to brief you on the situation we have awoken to."

Every officer in the room seemed to lean forward in anticipation, Teach among them. Was there information on the outside world? The Sergeant pointed to the presentation behind him, "Luckily, the majority of systems inside the bunker remain functional. Unfortunately, some noncritical systems had degraded, but they are in the process of being repaired as we speak." Teach watched as the Sergeants face turned Grim as he moved onto the next slide. "We discovered one major issue soon after initial personnel were brought out of stasis. The lift to the surface is inoperable."

General Tolbert interjected, "What do you mean it's inoperable, Sergeant?"

The Sergeant answered quickly, "We don't rightly know how it happened, sir. It's as if the upper half of the lift had been destroyed, allowing for earth to fill in the lift." The Sergeant seemed to exude an air of finality, "As of right now, sir, we are trapped five hundred meters underground with limited food stores."

The entire auditorium broke into whispers as some officers tried to wrap their heads around the situation, others trying to figure out how to break the news to their troops. Teach, on the other hand, questioned the Sergeant more. "Do we have any plans to reach the surface?"

The Sergeant shook his head in with a solemn, "No." The entire room turned grim. The thought of dying underground didn't sound pleasing to anyone.

"Well ain't that just dandy" came Teach's soured response as he sat back down, hand stroking his chin in thought.

The Sergeant coughed into his hand, "Although we don't have a solution as of this moment, I can assure you sir that we have a think tank working on the situation right now."

"I want to speak to them immediately," came General Tolbert's immediate response. "Apologies, but I don't care what else you have to say. I did not accept command of this operation just to die underground."

The Sergeant nodded, smiling, "Yes, sir." Turning to the rest of the officers in the room, he finished with, "Well then, that concludes my brief." With those words, Teach stood up, already on his way out with Wilkes hot on his heels.

"Well, this is a great start to the 'morning,' isn't it Teach," said Wilkes sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah." In a way, Teach was somewhat glad not everything turned out perfect it gave them a goal to complete. It would have been preferable though if the situation didn't seem near impossible.

And at that moment, the emergency alarms that Teach had expected to hear when he woke decided to sound, something happened. With that, Teach and Wilkes took off running.

* * *

Dr. Oobleck took off running as soon as he heard the workers excited shouting. Moving through the maze of tents, he entered into the center of the camp where he could see the massive drill that had bored a hole straight down to what could be another piece to the puzzle that was Remnant's past. At the moment, a team of excavators was removing the mining drill and replacing it with a lift that could take Dr. Oobleck and his team down into the ancient ruins. The excitement exuding from his body made him shake more than his coffee ever had. 'It actually might just be the coffee,' thought Oobleck as he took a swig from his thermos. The men and women surrounding the lift lept back in surprise as the Doctor seemed to burst to the front of the group.

Oobleck turned to the only man who hadn't been surprised, "Ozpin! What a pleasure that you could join us!"

Ozpin smiled, "Well, I had a feeling that this expedition is going to be quite interesting." Turning to the hole with a curious look in his eye, Ozpin continued, "In all my years I've never seen or heard of such a large structure underground."

Oobleck hummed in agreement, "Indeed, it is quite an exciting discovery." He turned to the men setting up the lift system, "Excuse me, but when will you be finished with the lift?"

"We're ready to go whenever you are, sir." said one of the men briefly glancing away from the task he was working on.

"Wonderful! Plenty of time for me to grab my tools."

The worker nodded to the Doctor, watching as he ran off. When he turned around, he saw the Doctor standing there carrying a large backpack. "Wha-? How? When?" He turned around to Professor Ozpin, hoping for an explanation just to find the Professor sipping from his coffee mug with an amused smile. The worker shook his head in exasperation, mumbling, "Huntsmen are too fucking weird."

Ozpin laughed as he gestured to the lift, "After you, Professor Oobleck."

"That's Doctor, Headmaster. Now let us leap forth into the unknown," Said Oobleck as he stepped into the lift. Ozpin took another sip from his mug as he stepped into the lift, followed by a small group of workers. The lift began its descent as its engine whirred.

"Bartholomew, how far down is the structure again?"

Oobleck smiled, "Five hundred meters from the highest point to the surface. It's truly fascinating a structure of its size so far underground would be a struggle for any kingdom to construct today, but some ancient civilization managed to do it. Remarkable!"

Ozpin looked back up to the dwindling light of the world above, looking deep in thought, "Yes, quite remarkable indeed." They continued their descent in silence as the light from the surface continued to fade away, replaced by the light of the worker's headlamps.

An audible thud could be heard as the lift touched the bottom of the hole; confused, Ozpin looked at the dirt walls surrounding them before turning to Oobleck, "Did you dig in the correct spot? I don't see any entrance into the ruins."

Oobleck smiled, handing Ozpin a shovel, "Not to worry, old friend. Digging is the fun part!"

Ozpin stared at the tool, "Really?"

"Why, of course, it could take a while to open an entrance to the structure, and more hands are always welcomed."

Ozpin nodded, taking the shovel in hand in smiling, "Well, it has been some time since I got my hands." Removing his coat and rolling up his sleeves, he turned back to the Doctor, "Now, where exactly are we digging?"

Oobleck removed a device of some kind, pointing it at the surrounding walls, all while humming a tune. Ozpin could only shake his head as the energetic Doctor zipped around. Suddenly Oobleck came to a stop, "There you are!" Turning back, the Doctor wore the smile of a child who had found a lost toy. "The entrance is right here, and close!"

The workers eagerly moved forward and began working on uncovering the entrance. Ozpin meanwhile looked back at the beaming Doctor, "You're enjoying this, aren't you."

Oobleck smiled even harder, "Why, of course, discovering the secrets of the unknown can be such a thrill. Now let's get to work."

Ozpin worked right alongside the Doctor and workers, clearing dirt and loose stones. Sweat poured down the Headmasters face when one of the workers struck something different than the usual stone. The workers' already vigorous work turned into a frenzy as they cleared away the final layers of dirt, only to stop when the entrance finally became clear to see.

"I'm not an expert on ancient civilizations, but that doesn't look right," said Ozpin turning to the resident expert for an explanation.

"How strange," said Oobleck as he ran his hands along the entrance's surface. "It looks more like an entrance to an Atlas military base than an ancient ruin."

"It can't be though," said one of the confused workers, "We were told about it from the SDC, and wouldn't the Atlas military have tried to stop us if we were going to be unearthing some secret base?"

Ozpin stroked his chin, continuing to stare at the surprisingly modern entrance, made out of concrete and metal bars it was surprisingly well intact for something that should have been frail and in ruin, "You are correct, but that only begs the question what is this then?"

One of the workers tapped the point of his pickaxe against the surface of the door, "Well, shouldn't we try and open th-" He stopped as the doors suddenly opened, and a group of men surged in and tackled the worker, holding the rest at gunpoint.

The old world had finally reunited with the new.

* * *

**Whew Finally got chapter two out. Sorry, it took so long but a lot has been going on lately with joining the army and all so I don't have a whole lot of time to just sit down and write.**

**Review Responses**

**Guest 1: In the show, I'm pretty sure that being underground wouldn't do jack to protect anyone from being wiped out alongside the magic era humans. I'm just interpreting it a bit different taking it as more of a surface level wipe that didn't go to **far** underground.**

**Thanks to everyone else that reviewed! I was honestly kind of surprised that anyone had actually read my story, but it gives me the motivation to write some more.**


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